


Caffeine, Sugar, Carbonated Water

by Lothiriel84



Series: Another Cup Of Coffee [1]
Category: MarsCorp (Podcast)
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Soft Drinks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-31 03:11:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10890459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: Don't look backDon't give upPour yourself another cup





	Caffeine, Sugar, Carbonated Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Wolfsmilch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolfsmilch/gifts).



“This – doesn’t taste like coffee at all,” Dave pointed out, wrinkling his nose. “It’s more like, I don’t know, fizzy syrup?”

“Yes,” David nodded, helpfully. “Sugarcane is one of the main ingredients, actually.”

“I think it’s actually rather good,” Hayley hastened to add, smiling at him in a way that made him vaguely uncomfortable; he really wished she would stop doing that.

“It’s all pointless, isn’t it?” Dave spat out, his tone quite a complicated mix of frustration and defeat. “We can’t seriously hope to compete with Titan Coffee. This will never be more than a pipe dream, just another pathetic little Orange getting exactly what he deserves for forgetting his rightful place.”

“Ahem,” David started, his ingrained need to prove himself useful immediately taking over. “Hayley, why don’t you go and get us some salted nuts from one of the vendibots?”

“Um, yeah, sure?” she said, though he suspected it was more out of a desire to please him than anything else. He was cautiously optimistic that she would eventually develop a crush on someone her age in the not so distant future, for he wasn’t really looking forward to a potentially excruciating conversation about the countless issues that came with age difference and placing someone on a pedestal for all the wrong reasons.

Dave barely noticed the exchange, went on staring morosely at his mug of surrogate coffee. It had to be pretty hard for Oranges, David reflected, maybe for the first time in his life. They were either invisible, or despised by everyone else on the base; and if there was one thing he understood only too well, that was being shunned and mistreated by his fellow employees.

“You know what the late Colin Denham used to say? What a massive star calls the end of the world, the scientist calls a supernova.”

Dave snorted, grimaced as he took another sip of his fizzy drink. “As if that means anything at all.”

“Well, stellar evolutionary stages are quite complicated processes, and fascinating ones too. My point is, until there’s energy, there’s hope; that is to say, until the heat death of the universe, most likely.”

“Yeah, boffin, thanks for your lecture. This is making me feel so much better.”

The sarcasm in his voice was so heavy even David couldn’t miss it. He sighed, absently ran his finger over the edge of his mug. “I was locked in a room for ten years, Dave. I know how it feels, being trapped in a situation with no realistic hope of escape. And yet, here I am.”

He felt Dave’s gaze upon him, poured another mug of coffee to give himself something to do. “That is what humankind does – we survive, despite everything.”

“Lucky bastards,” Dave muttered, but his tone was less sarcastic, more like his usual self. He downed the rest of his drink, set down the mug on the small table. “You know, I think this might actually work if we decided to sell it as an iced drink rather than a hot beverage.”

“Possibly,” David considered, his mind already calculating all the possible variations in the relative concentration of coffee, sugar, and all the other ingredients. “We could even set up our own vendibots, have them placed in a few selected locations across the base.”

“Yeah,” Dave agreed, his eyes already shining with the promise of success. “Let’s do it.”

“Guys, here are all the nuts I could find,” Hayley announced, re-entering the room. “I hope these will do?”

“That’s my intern,” Dave smiled in mock approval, and immediately snatched a packet out of her hands.


End file.
